Well-known Limpopo motivational speaker, academic and entrepreneur Ms Humbelani Netshandama urged rural women in Limpopo to stand up and to empower themselves through community and self-help projects in order to break the cycle of poverty, ease unemployment and stop them from having to beg from their partners.

Netshandama was speaking during the University of Venda’s 16 Days of Activism commemoration service organised by the university and organizations which are active in the fight against the abuse of children and women. The event, in which hundreds of women from all over Limpopo took part, was held at the Univen Stadium a fortnight ago. The formal function was followed by a march to the local magistrate courts, where they handed a memorandum to the Thohoyandou Senior Magistrate, Mr Nyambeni Mudau.

Adv Kate Choshi, a senior lecturer at the university, said the meeting was aimed at devising and implementing better ways of curbing abuse. Choshi said by joining the march, women were making themselves part of the broader South Africans who endorsed the theme of the 16 Days campaign, which aims to see an end to violence against women and children.

Ms Humbelani Netshandama of The HM Rehab and Motivational Centre called on women to stand up and do something for themselves in order to break the cycle of poverty and to create jobs. Netshandama said there was a lot of poverty in the villages and women were partly to blame, because they sit down and wait for handouts from their husbands, which leave them at the mercy of their husbands, who can do as they wish with them. “If you are always begging from your husband and you are always pestering him, you are breeding a fertile ground for abuse,” she said.

Mudau promised that all the women’s problems would be looked into. Mudau said women were lucky that they were living in a democratic country with a good constitution that allowed them to voice their dissatisfaction by using different approaches. Mudau said the abuse of women and children was on the increase and they needed all to stand together to fight it from all sides.